


Checks and Balances

by tasabian



Category: Smallville
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-24 10:30:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2578334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tasabian/pseuds/tasabian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lex and Oliver are forced to work together to escape a deadly trap. Can they succeed without killing each other? And what will Clark's reaction be?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Checks and Balances

There's coolness against the back of his head; an ache at the front. A hum in his ears and he can't move his hands.

Oliver opens his eyes. It's dark and it takes a few seconds for his eyes to focus. The hum is an engine; the coolness is a steel wall. This is a submarine. He is hand-cuffed inside a submarine. And the pale circle across from him is the face of Lex Luthor.

Damnit.

* * * *

From under his lashes, Lex watches Oliver struggle back to consciousness and take in his surroundings. Lex's head aches and he's irritable. Rule #1 at Lexcorp: if a Jack-in-the-Box or Monkey-with-cymbals gets dropped at reception, do _not_ touch it. It will be from Toyman and it will explode or exude a toxic gas. Yet here he is. Someone poked the monkey.

Toyman likes games so this is intended to be a game, between Lex and Oliver. Clark's Enemy facing off against Clark's Ally (or so Toyman thinks.)

He'll have to swallow his irritation and talk to Oliver presently but for now, let him go on thinking Lex is still unconscious.

* * * *

If only this was Lex's plot. Oliver could endure both the handcuffs and the headache if it meant Clark would finally see Lex as he truly is.

But he's remembering now. The last sound he'd heard before crumpling to the ground was Toyman's poisonous giggle.

Oliver has killed one Lex and not regretted it much. The next Lex to appear on the scene was a Lionel-hearted clone and he had murdered Tess. That meant there was little risk of him worming his way back into Clark's affections.

That was always The Fear. That Lex would return and somehow – Oliver wasn't sure how but it worried him – be forgiven by Clark. He's never minded Clark being with Lois; in Oliver's eyes, his own past relationship with Lois had forged a shared bond with Clark. Lex is different; Lex is outside the circle.

Oliver had made the mistake of becoming complacent. The Lionel-hearted clone had been killed; the League suspected Vandal Savage was responsible. But a few months later, Oliver had heard Lois saying "It's not possible!" and watched footage of yet another Lex Luthor quietly slipping in through the back door of LexCorp.

"It's a clone," Oliver had told Clark. "It has to be."

And if not, he'd thought, _I'll kill him anyway._

* * * *

Lex had awoken, in a chamber of cold white. Brainiac was bending over him. Lex's voice came out a rusty groan:

"Again? Can't you just kill me already?"

"I am not the Brainiac you knew, Lex Luthor. I am Brainiac Six. I have come from the future to return you to Earth."

Before Lex could speak, the white walls had dissolved into a side street in Metropolis. Lex blinked, steadied his wobbly legs against the nearest wall. The pavement was cold on his bare feet.

"How long have I been gone?"

"1728 days," Brainiac Six had replied. "In your absence, two successive clones have assumed control of Luthorcorp, now called LexCorp. Your sister, Tess Mercer, is dead. An alternate of Lionel Luthor, from another dimension, is also dead."

Lex blinked:

"And Clark? Clark Kent."

"Clark Kent is not dead," Brainiac 6 had said, then vanished.

Indeed, Clark was not dead. That evening, Lex had watched in astonishment as Clark, clad in a garish red cape and blue tights, had flown across his hotel television screen, lifting a bus across a gorge. Lex wondered if he was hallucinating, had gone properly crazy this time, but no, there was Lois, interviewing Clark, while pretending not to recognize him.

Lying in his hotel bed that night, Lex had pondered these new developments and noticed an absence in himself. For the first time in his adult life, he was not angry. He was not afraid. The pain and fear that Lionel had knotted into him had gone. It occurred to Lex that five years of involuntary cold storage might have been the greatest therapy anyone could have given him. Lionel is now a remote figure in an unpleasant fairy tale, his legacy frozen out.

* * * *

"I've seen him," Clark had said. "He's changed."

"No," Oliver said, meaning: "No, he hasn't changed." "No, don't see him." "No, this cannot be allowed to happen."

"Oliver, this should be a relief to you," Clark said. "It means you didn't kill him after all."

Clark's definition of "relief" differs significantly from Oliver's. And from that moment, Oliver had been on edge, hyper-alert to any changes of mood, any unaccounted for absences from Clark.

When Clark moved out of Lois's apartment, Oliver was nearly frantic.

"Smallville will always be my best friend and number one Copy Boy," Lois had said and refused to discuss it any further.

"But you're with Lois in the future," Oliver told Clark. "You saw your future."

"It wasn't set in stone," Clark had said. "Lois will always be important to me."

Oliver had no idea what was going on in Clark's head, he didn't confide.

"He's always found it easier to talk to women," Chloe had said, consolingly. "Well, except for-"

Except for Lex.

Within the year, Clark and Lex are living together. There's no announcement; it just happens. The rest of the League takes it in stride, without acknowledging it; that's how the League rolls. Lois continues to bend Clark to her will at work and promote Superman unceasingly. Chloe and Oliver split up amicably, and he finds his way back to Dinah.

Three years pass.

* * * *

"Wakey wakey!" Toyman's ear-puncturing voice crackles over a loudspeaker, Oliver winces, raises his head and meets Lex's eye.

"Tedious," says Lex.

"Oh, now Lexy," says Toyman's disembodied voice. "You wound me. Did you think I wouldn't have something fun planned?"

He will either pit them against each other or force Clark to choose which one to save, thinks Oliver. Toyman is not an original thinker.

Lex coughs to get Oliver's attention. He blinks, then blinks again. Fast blinks, slow blinks. Is he having a seizure? Oliver stares at him puzzled, and then figures it out: Morse code.

_"Can you get out of the cuffs?"_ Lex blinks.

Oliver nods.

_"Follow my lead."_

The cuffs are too easy to pick; clearly Toyman intends them to escape. Lex is working on his own cuffs; suddenly, in Oliver's head, this is a race and it is critically important to beat Lex. Which he does.

"Well done, Archer!" crackles Toyman's voice. "Shall I tell you the next step in our little game?"

Oliver looks over at Lex, who is extracting himself from the cuffs.

"The game is called "Only One Gets Out Alive." Only One!" Toyman emits a high pitched squeal of excitement.

"The escape pod to the submarine is guarded by a secret code, hee hee! The first to crack the code walks away. The other," Toyman drops his voice to an equally irritating baritone "is SUNK. You have five minutes before I cut off the oxygen."

"Well, that's great," mutters Oliver. He glances over at Lex, who is….blinking.

_"I know the code."_

"You can't!" says Oliver. "It's not possible." Lex rolls his eyes and gently taps out a message on the wall:

"Follow my lead."

Oliver stares at him; Lex holds his gaze. Finally Oliver nods.

"I'm not sorry we've been forced to confront each other," says Lex, loudly. "This conversation is long overdue."

Whatever Oliver was expecting, it wasn't this.

"Oh yes. I agree." His voice sounds stiff and artificial.

"We have a lot of water under the bridge," says Lex. "But there's no reason we can't be civil."

"Okay…" Where is he going with this? Lex clears his throat:

"Oliver, I forgive you trying to kill me."

What? Oliver stares at him.

"And I think," Lex struggles a little. "I think that we should hug."

Oliver stares at him in horror but Lex is already approaching, arms stiffly open.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO." Toyman's voice, enraged, nearly blows out the loudspeaker.

"Hug me, Oliver," says Lex, without conviction.

"DO YOU WANT ME TO COME DOWN THERE AND STOP YOU?"

Now Oliver understands and allows himself to be pulled in for the most awkward hug in the history of embraces.

'YOU'RE NOT PLAYING MY GAME!"

And the hatch bursts open, ejecting Toyman in full fury.

Instantly Lex has darted out of Oliver's grip and is running for the control panel. Oliver lunges for Toyman who is brandishing a stupid, but doubtless lethal, parasol topped with a monkey's head. One quick move and Toyman is unconscious on the ground; Oliver is holding the parasol, the point of which just happens to be aimed at Lex, whose hand hovers over the panel.

Lex stares back at Oliver, a trace of a smirk on his mouth.

Oliver has the weapon; Lex has the password. He could put an end to the Lex problem right now. He can actually hear himself breaking the news to Clark: "I tried to reach Toyman but I didn't make it in time…he aimed the laser at Luthor. I'm so sorry, Clark." He can see Clark's face, twisted in grief, but he'd heal surely? He's lost Lex so many times before.

"So…." says Lex. Perhaps he has been playing out scenarios in his head too.

Oliver makes a decision. Even if Clark never knew, Oliver would know that he had done this thing to Clark. If he can live with killing Lex, he can't live with bringing Clark pain.

"So," Oliver says. "You think you know the password?"

Lex's fingers are already busy. The hatch to the escape pod swings open.

"It was "Mother,"" says Lex. "What else would it be?"

* * * *

Lex is stretched out on the couch. Clark bustles around, barefoot, making dinner. Every time Lex looks up, Clark is smiling at him, wide and starry-eyed.

"Stop it," says Lex. Clark brings him a glass of wine.

"It's just….you and Oliver solved a problem together," says Clark. "I'm so proud."

Lex plays with the wine glass.

"You do realize that we still loathe each other? It's only fear of hurting you that keeps us from hurting each other."

"Well, I didn't say I was proud of _you_ ," says Clark, slyly. "Perhaps I'm proud of myself, for being the incentive to good behaviour."

He wraps an arm around Lex's shoulder. Lex leans back, his cheek against Clark's warm skin.

"Anyway, I think you're wrong," says Clark. "The old hate has scabbed over, for both of you, begun to heal."

"For me, perhaps. I think Oliver hates me even more now that I'm with you," says Lex.

Clark considers.

"He couldn't. Not now that he's seen how happy you make me…"

_Oh Clark_ , thinks Lex. But Clark is still beaming at him and Lex can't bear to dim the wattage of that smile.

"Come here," he says.

"But dinner-" says Clark, with a demure sweep of his eyelashes.

Lex pushes him down on the couch and climbs on top of him. He kisses Clark's mouth, his hair, his collar bone. Clark hooks a leg around Lex, tugging him closer. Lex draws back:

"You just kicked me in the ass!"

Clark smiles and taps him again.

"That's asking for it," says Lex, and proceeds to give it to him. His love for Clark takes up so much room, there's no space left for hatred. Of Oliver, of anyone.

* * * *

Oliver watches from a rooftop blocks away. He has watched Clark and Lex many times, has been compelled to do it, though it hurts him: Pleasure to see Clark naked, flushed, and happy; Pain to see him naked, flushed and happy with Lex. Clark is always so completely focused on Lex that Oliver hasn't once worried about being spotted by that formidable peripheral vision.

Tonight is different. When Clark sits up and starts to undress, Lex pulls away, walks to the window and closes the blinds. He has never closed the blinds before.

It would never occur to Clark that anyone would be watching him kiss Lex in the LexCorp penthouse. Lex knows that Oliver would be watching because if the situation was reversed, Lex would want to watch Clark. He has allowed Oliver to watch to send a message: Clark is mine.

Closing the blinds tonight sends a different message: _Don't put yourself through this any more._ In Lex's unique way, it's an act of generosity. Oliver has to laugh: Luthor showing him compassion? But Lex has a point. Perhaps it is time to move on, or at least try. Spend more time in Star City and leave old haunts behind.

Oliver's phone vibrates in his pouch. It's Dinah. _"Coming home?"_

He is very lucky to have Dinah; she only asks the questions he can answer and stays well away from the ones he can't, or won't.

Oliver texts back: _"Coming home, Pretty Bird!"_ and disappears over the rooftops of Metropolis.

THE END


End file.
